San Juan Hill: Manhattan’s Lost Neighborhood celebrates the people, arts, and culture of an historic New York City neighborhood. Directed by Emmy Award-winner Stanley Nelson, the film uplifts the neighborhood that once existed in the area around where Lincoln Center is today and was home to luminaries in ragtime, stride, jazz, mambo, musical theater, and more. As part of the Legacies of San Juan Hill Festival, the film was presented alongside a panel discussion exploring San Juan Hill's artistic legacy, moderated by musician and scholar Loren Schoenberg. In these excerpts, scholars Dr. Vanessa K. Valdés, Fredara Hadley, and Aaron Flagg discuss San Juan Hill’s cultural diversity and musical influences, and how this history informs the arts today.

Panel Participants

Moderator
Loren Schoenberg, Founding Director and Senior Scholar, National Jazz Museum in Harlem

Panelists
Aaron Flagg, Chair and Associate Director of Juilliard Jazz Studies, The Juilliard School
Fredara Hadley, Professor of Ethnomusicology, The Juilliard School
Dr. Vanessa K. Valdés, Writer and Independent Scholar, African Diasporic Studies

Part of Legacies of San Juan Hill, an ongoing project that explores and uplifts the history, communities, and cultural legacy of the Manhattan neighborhoods that existed in and around the area where Lincoln Center resides today. To learn more, visit: LincolnCenter.org/SanJuanHill

This panel discussion was filmed at Lincoln Center on October 14, 2025.